Caterpillar mulls second offshore yuan bond issue

May 17, 2011

Shares

By , HONG KONG, May 17 – Caterpillar, the world\’s largest heavy equipment maker, said Tuesday it is mulling a second offshore yuan bond issue in Hong Kong after raising $154 million from its first bond sale in the city.

It will meet bond investors in Asia this week about the move, Jim Duensing, the chief financial officer at Caterpillar Financial Services Corp, a wholly-owned financial arm of its US-based parent company told Dow Jones Newswires.

The executive declined comment on the timing of the possible yuan bond sale, according to the report.

Caterpillar, the world\’s biggest manufacturer of bulldozers, excavators, wheel loaders and other construction machinery, raised one billion yuan ($154 million) from its two-year yuan-denominated bond issue in November last year.

The funds from the latest issue would allow the firm to invest in China, a key market which accounted for around half of its growth in Asia last year. Caterpillar has more than 7,400 employees in China.

The US company posted a record first-quarter profit last month, after profits jumped 426 percent year-on-year to $1.22 billion from $233 million on strong global demand.

Caterpillar was the second non-financial foreign firm to tap Hong Kong\’s yuan-denominated bond market, after fast food giant McDonald\’s raised 200 million yuan from its August bond issue in the southern Chinese territory.

Yuan-related financial products have been booming in Hong Kong, which has been acting as a test bed for Beijing\’s ambitious goal to turn the unit into a global currency.